Newsletter! https://t.co/lBZjbui6TY
14th July 2022
Disadvantaged Students
Allocation £66,800
At West Cliff, we believe there should be no barrier to success. Each child is supported, as an individual, to achieve their personal and academic potential. Our children, even if they face a disadvantage in their life, should be able to perform better than or at least as well as all other children nationally. We aim to achieve this through a personalised approach which places the individual student at the centre of everything we do.
10 steps to success for disadvantaged students
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2. The Individual At West Cliff , we care for each student as an individual. We support each student, regardless of their circumstances. We understand the challenges families living in Whitby might face and create individual plans to overcome these. |
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3. Barriers to learning Uniform and resources should never be a limit to a child’s success. Pupil premium students can receive support with the uniform and school equipment. If a child is struggling to get into school, we will always help. |
4. Cultural Experiences We will ensure all our children, despite their background, have the opportunity to explore a wide range of culture in the UK as part of their wider curriculum, including a week long residential to an outward bound centre and a programme of cultural enrichment trips. |
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5. Character and culture Throughout their time in school, we ensure that children understand their own potential and how they can contribute to an ever changing world. We aim to show them the choices which are theirs to make. |
6. Reading We believe reading is central to success in all aspects of life and is essential in every subject. All children have access to high quality books that are ambitious, both to read at home and as part of the daily story time in classrooms |
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7. Dream Big It is sometimes hard to know what you want to be. At West Cliff you are encouraged to believe that there are no limits if you are willing to work hard! |
8. A challenging and relevant curriculum Our curriculum is designed to support all children and ensures they access a broad range of subjects which fully prepare them for the next stage of their education |
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9. Curriculum support and intervention We closely monitor and support all our children. If a child is struggling in a particular area, we will offer bespoke, focused intervention as early as possible. |
10. Tiger Taming We challenge all of our children to ‘Tame their tiger’ – this means to learn to manage the voice that tells you that you can’t achieve anything that you want to! We have 10 rules to tame our tigers! |
10 commitments to disadvantaged students both during and after lockdown
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1. Communication From the start of lockdown we ensured we stayed in daily contact with all our disadvantaged students and their families. |
2. Devices and IT Support As a school we provide every child with an I pad which they were able to take home on the first day of lockdown. We were able to provide online lessons immediately for all children using Seesaw. Immediate IT support was available for all families including delivery of spare chargers! Children have continued to take these home when isolating or being covid positive. WE ensured that ALL families had access to the internet. |
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3. A Full and Engaging Online Curriculum We swiftly developed an accessible online curriculum which utilised Seesaw . As lockdown developed, these progressed into more ambitious interactive lessons, narrated presentations, lessons and interactive sessions. |
4. Online virtual classrooms We ensured students continued to feel part of their class through online learning. We allowed students and staff to chat and interact despite being isolated from one another. We made staff videos and children sent in contributions to videos so that the school still continued to feel like a family. |
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5. Financial support We provided a vital life line for families who had nowhere else to turn. Parents messaged on facebook when they were in need and we provided the support. This ranged from food hampers, toys, Christmas presents and general financial support whenever needed. This support was financially funded by other parents and local businesses. |
6. Food Vouchers and External Support The school worked with individual families to ensure they were able to access all the external support and guidance available. Families were guided through the process of applying for food vouchers, applying for universal credit and helping families apply for Free School Meals and Universal Credit. The school also continued to provide a vital signposting service, recommending several mental health and wellbeing services for individual children and families as needed. |
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7. Personal Development and Wellbeing Opportunities All children were provided with regular challenges, signposting enriching and engaging activities which could take place at home. These were designed to offer alternative activities, personal reflection and development and positive wellbeing activities. These often involved the whole family getting involved! On a very snowy day we had a whole school snowman competition where children posted their photos into Seesaw and onto Facebook! |
8. Bespoke Compass Buzz Sessions We were able to assess the wellbeing of individual students upon their return to school and provide bespoke compass buzz sessions for children to discuss their lockdown experiences and make sense of the current circumstances. |
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9. Return to School During the 2nd Lockdown Every disadvantaged child was given the opportunity for a return to school during the second lockdown – we had 60% of our school community return during this period. |
10. Trusted Adults Every child in school has a trusted adult that they know they can speak to about anything at all. |
